If the Hiroshima
Carp were able to muster a win over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Game 6
on Saturday, Hiroki Kuroda would have been given a chance to write a fairy tale
ending to a career that up that day was long, consistent, and steady, if never
storybook. Try as they might, his
teammates couldn’t get him the ball just one last time.
Alas, Kuroda will
end his 19th and final season without winning a title as the relentless
Fighters lived up to their name thanks in large part to a superior bullpen
effort and the outstanding hitting of Japan Series MVP Brandon Laird, who
clubbed a grand slam in the 10-4 win that clinched the Japan Series title 4
games to 2 for the visitors at Hiroshima’s Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium.
It was a
disappointing end for the Carp and its legions of enthusiastic supporters who
were hoping to see Kuroda, who was a stalwart while winning 203 games combined
in the NPB (all of which were with Hiroshima) and the Dodgers and Yankees in
the Major Leagues, take the hill. Kuroda
had already pitched well in Game 3. With
a 2-0 Series advantage, the Carp had Kuroda on the mound with a 2-1 lead with
two outs in the sixth inning of Game 3 at Hokkaido before the veteran had to
leave the game with leg cramps and stiffness. The Hiroshima bullpen coughed up
that game, and the three subsequent ones to end the club’s 32nd consecutive
season without a Japan Series championship.
After winning the
title on Saturday, Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama simultaneously paid tribute
to and expressed relief that they didn’t have to face Kuroda in a
winner-take-all match-up, even if he did have his marvel of a hybrid hitting/pitching
star Shohei Otani waiting in the wings.
“We faced Kuroda
after we took the consecutive losses (in Games 1 and 2), but I was thinking
that our players would’ve gone in the game on pure spirit,” said Fighters
manager Hideki Kuriyama to Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times. “In a way, we took
advantage of Kuroda’s energy. I really respect him. Maybe he wanted to pitch
one more game, but if we were to play one more game, I’m not sure we could’ve
won, so forgive me for that.”
Kuroda started his
career with Hiroshima in 1997 and played there through 2007 winning 100 games,
garnering the 2006 Sawamura Award as the NPB’s best pitcher, while earning a
reputation as a (Yomiuri) Giants killer. Wanting to play on a winning team, he
jumped to the Major Leagues and signed a three-year $35.3 million free agent
contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008. After a four-season stint that included a
one-year extension in 2011, Kuroda ended up with a 41-46 record, with a 3.45
ERA and a 1.187 WHIP in 115 games and 699 innings (second only to Clayton
Kershaw) for the Dodgers who went to the NLCS series twice during that
time. After signing a free agent
contract with New York prior to the 2012 season, Kuroda went 38-33 for the
Yankees over three years, sporting a nearly identical ERA (3.44) as he did with
the Dodgers and an even better WHIP (1.155) while pitching in 95 games and
averaging over 200 innings (620 total) in each season, tops on the team.
Despite several
substantial offers, Kuroda returned to Hiroshima in 2015, intending to stay for
just one final season at age 40. He
finished 11-8 with an impressive 2.55 ERA and 169.2 innings pitched, strong
enough that the Osaka native extended his career another season. It was a good thing for the Carp as 2015
Sawamura Award winner Kenta Maeda agreed to an incentive-laden eight-year
contract with Kuroda’s old Major League team, the Dodgers. This season, Kuroda went 10-8 with a 3.09 ERA
over 24 games and 151.2 innings. He
gave up three earned runs in a 3-0 Climax Series Game 3 loss to the Yokohama
DeNA Baystars on October 14 before pitching well in his Japan Series 5 2/3
inning stint surrendering one run on four hits while exiting with a lead. But the Carp bullpen had trouble from there
on out-giving up 16 runs in the final four games-all losses.
“However well you
perform, it doesn’t matter if your team doesn’t get a win,” Kuroda told Kaz
Nagatsuka of the Japan Times. “It’s all about the team.”
Described as a
calm and humble player, Fighters manager Kuriyama sang his praises to Nagatsuka
after that game.
“He certainly has
ability and skills but you can’t describe him in just those terms He has a
special quality that’s intangible.”
In a consolation
prize of sorts, the Carp announced that Kuroda's number 15 jersey will be retired. He is just the third player in team
history (Koji Yamamoto (number 8) and Sachio Kinugasa (3) were the first) to
have his number retired.
Carp owner Hajime
Matsuda told Kyodo News:
“I wanted him
remembered in 15 and 20 years’ time not just as a pitcher who won 203 games in
Japan and the United States but also for the influence he had on people.”
Having
covered Dodgers games during Kuroda’s entire career in Los Angeles, I would
describe him with one word, “ballplayer”.
While it is a generic term by those of us in the outside world, being
called a ballplayer by a teammate or an opponent means earning their ultimate
respect. The term is not often bandied about like clicking the “Like” button on
social media. Such-named players are often the ones who who are as tough as
nails, don’t speak much and “compete” (another popular term in player
vocabulary) entirely for their team.
My brother Dave
taught me to believe that no player “deserves” to win a championship, no matter
how good or how nice of a guy they are.
Championships have to be earned. While Hiroki Kuroda may not have
deserved to win his first championship in his 19-year career, I really wished
that he had been given the chance. But
instead, he was left waiting in the wings for the last time as yet another team
celebrated on the field at the end of the baseball season.
And that’s a damn
shame.
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